The Summer of a Lifetime
by ray-ray021594
Summary: Catherine Flynn wants the prefect summer...who will make that happen and who will ruin it? GRILLOWS all the way baby! Please R&R!
1. The Beginning of Summer

Chapter 1

Catherine Flynn and the rest of her class mates rush out of the class all shouting and talking at the same time. It was officiously summer for the 16 year old and she knew that this summer was going to be like no other. She was sixteen and she was going to have fun! There was just one little problem—she had to work. That's right, on her summer vacation she was going to have to work…as a waitress for the B&B owned by her favorite teacher, Mrs. Smith. She wanted to be like any normal teenager in her town: surf everyday, go to parties at night and just have a blast. She decided then and there that she was going to make the best of the situation—the B&B was right on the beach, the place where Catherine felt the safest.

"Catherine!!! Hello, come on girl we are out of school! STOP THINKING AND GO CRAZY!!!!!!!" screamed her friend, Carlisle.

"What…yeah. Okay guys lets hit the surf!"

Her and her three best friends Natalie, twins Caela and Carlisle all got there skateboards out of there bags and road laughing and being crazy the whole way to the surf shop Rip Curl where there friend Brenten worked and kept their surfboards for them while they were at school. These girls skated and surfed every day.

The town that they live in is Jefferys Bay—where surfing is like a religion. This time of year was the busiest for the little town, it was the Shell Festival, the annual festival held at Jefferys every summer—it's like one big party with market stalls, local bands playing and a ton of other great stuff. Catherine started working tomorrow so she was going to make the best of this day.

The girls arrive at the beach where they are already setting up for the Shell Festival, and they could already see more people where around town. They ran down to the beach took their clothes off (they had their bikinis underneath) and ran to the water. Laughing, talking and screaming as they ran…

Meanwhile collage student Gil Grissom was sitting on the passenger's side of his car grimacing at the loud obnoxious music that hid best friend Jim Brass was blasting. He looked at his friend, "Jim?"

"Yeah? What is it?" he turned to look at Gil. "Oh, come on Gil! It's the summer! I believe me when I tell you old buddy, old pal, the music that you hear right now is nothing compared to the sicadelic sounds that you're gonna experience in Jefferys!" shouted Jim over the unnaturally loud music.

"Tell me again why I let you talk me into this? I would have been quite happy letting you gallivant off to a place where all the girls wear are bikinis and almost never brush their hair and I could have stayed at home with Norbit."

"Gil, you're twenty-three years old, man! It's summer! Live a little!"

"Why aren't I driving? I mean…it's my car!!"

"Oh, calm yourself, you. You give me earache. You need to get laid, you know that don't you, dude?"

"JIM!"


	2. It's gotta start somewhere

Chapter 2

Gil slammed is bag on the bed of their room of the B&B. He had barley said a word to Jim since the, "You need to get laid, you know that don't you, dude?" thing. He didn't understand Jim sometimes—no scratch that, he didn't understand how they became friends, they are the polar opposites of each other.

"Gil?" That was Jim's pathetic calling to him.

Gil realized that he might as well say something. His friend didn't mean any harm. He turned around and looked at his best friend, "Yeah?"

"Are you mad at me?"

"No, no Jim and am not mad at you, okay?" He turned around and started unpacking more and more furiously with each word. "I'm just…I don't know, all I really care about is school, my mom, my bugs and my friends…and you bring me here and I think that maybe it'll be fun, you know but I'm hear now and all I can think about are the million and one things I have to do at home and I just…"

"STOP! God, I need a drink now. Put the clothes down before you rip them, we'll go and grab a beer and watch the surf, okay?"

Catherine, Natalie, Caela and Carlisle are all walking out of the water. They have just finished their surf. They walk up the beach and start walking up the wooden steps.

"Did you guys see me? I went in that tube…I must have ridden it for like 5 minutes."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Oh my gosh you guys…look over there." Natalie points to where two guys are standing talking.

"I like the shorter one," whispers Carlisle.

Natalie and Caela agree. Catherine doesn't though she thinks the taller guy is cuter… even though she can barely see the shorter guy's face.

They all stop and watch the guys giggling as they do so. The taller guy motions to his friend and the two guys turn and look at them and the girls burst out laughing.

Natalie, Caela and Carlisle walk over to the shorter guy and he starts talking to them. Catherine stands there and looks at the taller guy. "Hey." 'Nice work, Cath', she thinks to herself, 'real smooth' and tries to look at anything but him.

But to her surprise the guy answers back, "Hi, I'm Gil. Gil Grissom."

Her head snaps up and she gives him her best smile…even though she's standing half-naked in front of a guy she hasn't even known for a minute. "Catherine Flynn."

"So…are you a local?"

Catherine could sense his nervousness and that made her feel a lot more confident, "Oh, yeah, yeah…I've lived here for like ever, so…but you're not from here, right?"

"How'd you know?"

"There's like 1200 people in this town…everybody knows everybody."

That got a smile out of him. "So, I, um, saw you surfing…you were…pretty good."

She smiled shyly at him. "You probably were lookin at one of them," she pointed to her friends.

"Oh no, no. I saw it was you."

"Well…thanks," she moved and sat down on the wooden bench and looked back at Gil's friend being the center of attention of her friends, "who's your friend?"

"Oh, that's Jim. And those girls?"

"That's Natalie and the other two are Caela and Carlisle. We've been friends for like…ever. So where are you staying?"

"Right over there," Gil said, pointed at the B&B behind them.

"Really!? Oh my gosh! I'm gonna be working there over the summer."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" suddenly realization hit her, she grabs Gil's arm to look at his watch and suddenly gets up. "Holy truck driver's mother! I'm gonna be late!"

"Late…late for what?"

"Work."

"Catherine, you work at a B&B—that stands for bed and BREAKFAST."

"We also serve dinner—just not lunch." She starts running up the stairs towards the B&B. "Bye Gil, Nat, Caela, Carlisle, Jim."

"Bye."

All of a sudden she rushes back, red as a beetroot. "I forgot my board." She grabs it and runs off, feeling totally and completely STUPID!

Gil and Jim are sitting at the table of their B&B the next morning. Gil couldn't stop thinking about Catherine all night. Her smile, her ditzyness, he really wanted to get to know her better. What am I thinking!!!! She can't be a day over 16 and I'm 23!! She's probably got a boyfriend. He caught a glimpse of her when they came back from the beach, but she had just spilt a drink on some guy and trying to advert her eyes from her teacher/boss, so she didn't see him…and Gil couldn't really blame her.

"Gil!?"

"What…" he snapped out of his day dream and looked at his friend and put on a genuinely fake smile. "Hello."

"Order your breakfast, man."

"I can't Jim. I can't stop thinking about that girl from yesterday."

"Which one?" Gil looked at him like he had two heads. "Oh…right. The one with the three hot friends…yeah, I remember."

"Yeah, her." Gil had gotten past taking anything Jim said too seriously. "I really like her."

"Umm…it'll pass."

"No, seriously Jim. I think you, know I might wanna…

"Hi, guys!"

Gil's head snapped up…her knew that bright and happy voice anywhere. "Catherine… hi! What are you doing here?" Gil felt his cheeks burn the second the words came out of his mouth.

Catherine smiles at him, "I work here…remember?"

Gil sinks further into his chair, maybe he should just go under the table, you know pretend he dropped his fork or something…to obvious.

Jim chuckles over his coffee cup as he watches this situation of his poor friend before him—all you can do is laugh.

"So…what would you guys like to eat?"

"I'll have the…bacon and eggs," replied Jim.

"Sure…and you Gil."

Gil looked at his unopened menu and then at Catherine, "Um…surprise me."

Catherine smiles at him, "I intend to."

Catherine was clearing away the last of the breakfast plates. She was exhausted, hadn't stopped thinking about Gil the whole night, she wanted to spend more time with him… but she knew that with all the work she was going to do, and even if she wasn't working she didn't know for sure if Gil really likes her.

"Maybe I should just ask him out," she said to herself.

"But where's the fun in that for me."

Catherine lets out a small scream and whips her head up to see a smug Gil Grissom. "Gil...hi. I was just…"

"It's okay…but…don't you know that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

"No, I, um…didn't know that. And how did you know I was talking about you anyways?"

"Well…were you?"

"No, yes, maybe." Gil gives her one of his famous looks. "Okay, fine I was. So what!?

"Well, I'd like to ask you out."

"I barely know you."

"Okay, as you know my name is Gil Grissom, I'm 23 and my best friend Jim and I have come here on vacation for the summer and then we'll go back to California where I'm studying to be a coroner." At Catherine's questioning look, he adds, "yes working with dead people… but there's more to it…it's helping the family and friends of the victim get some closure. My mom also lives in California, I enjoy reading just about anything, I have quiet an impressive bug collection back home. I share an apartment with Jim…but what's more important to me is that…I really, really like you. And I know that you are 16 and I know that there is a 7 year age difference, but for once in my life I don't care about technicalities. So I'm asking you…Catherine Flynn if you would like to go out with me…sometime?"

Catherine just stands there speechless…what can she say? "Um…wow. Okay." She smiles. "My turn, my name is Catherine Flynn, I'm 16 and I have just finished the 11th grade and I love surfing, it's my life, I also love skateboarding, my friends are my life and I love them. I live with my mom, Lily and my little sister Nancy, she can be really annoying but I really love her…and if you ask me which one I'm talking about, I don't know." Gil has to laugh at that. "I don't care about our age difference 'cause I really like you too. And yes…yes I would love to go out with you sometime." She smiles at him.

"Um…okay, great. When?"

Catherine pulls off her apron and throws it on the nearby table and smiles, "Right now!"


	3. Giggly bangels, angry bosses and picnics

Catherine and Gil are walking around the markets that were set up the day before. They are people everywhere; locals, tourists, and everybody else. The music is blasting and all they can see are people walking towards them. Catherine was pulling Gil along by the arm—she knows where she's going.

"Um…Catherine?!" Gil shouts over the music.

"Yeah?!"

"Is it always like this here?"

"Just wait…this is only day one. Wait until next week…you won't even be able to see in front of you!"

"I can't already!"

Catherine laughs. "Come on, I want a stack of giggly bangles!"

"Giggly bangles?"

Later Catherine and Gil are sitting on the swings at the park; they sat there for about three hours, talking about everything from their family, friends, school…anything that came up. Catherine had never felt more comfortable around anyone else before, she just felt so safe around Gil. She hoped that this would be their first of many dates.

"Oh, shit! It's Donna and her gang!"

"Who!?"

"Never mind! RUN!" Catherine grabs Gil's arm for the third time today and they start running towards the beach.

"Catherine! Look…slow down!"

She stops running and flops down on the sand. Gil takes a seat next to her. Catherine is lying on the sand with her hands behind her head with Gil sitting next to her.

"You wanna tell me what that was all about?"

Catherine looks at him and smiles cheekily, "Not really."

"Oh, I see how you are now." Gil says jokily. "Cath doesn't need me anymore, I guess I'll just…" and he flops down on the sand in an overly dramatic way.

Catherine bursts out laughing.

Gil gets up from the sand and looks at her, sand all over his face and hair. "That's how you'd react if I all of a sudden collapsed?"

Catherine looks at him for a moment then bursts out laughing again.

Gil rolls on top of her and looks at her. She stops laughing and looks at him, her mouth slightly open. She reaches out and wipes some of the sand of off his face. He reaches up and takes her hand away and kisses her gently.

When the kiss ends all Catherine can do is look at him, "Wow."

He looks up at her and smiles, "Is that all you can say?"

Catherine smiles at him, "Nope…let us go for a walk."

They both get up and dust the sand off. Catherine and Gil start walking, Catherine some sort of spinning thing and Gil just watching her and chuckling. "You better not be giggling at me Gil Grissom." She stops and looks at him. He stops directly in front of her.

"No, ma'am."

"Goody…come on, I'll race ya." And with that she starts running along the beach.

"You don't stop to breath, do you?!" Gil starts running towards her.

"Well…I try not to. It's the summer and I'm gonna have fun!" she starts screaming and punches the sky.

Gil chooses this moment to run over to her and pick her up by the waist and throw her over his shoulder.

"GIL!!!! Gil, put me down!!!" she starts kicking her legs wildly. "Gil, I have to get to work!!!!"

"Oh now you care about getting to work on time, huh?"

"YES!!!"

Catherine and Gil run into the B&B…Catherine was 25 minutes late. "If I just slip in gracefully then maybe she won't notice I'm not…here…" she sees her teacher's unimpressed look. "Hey, ma'am. I was just…

"Go and waitress."

"Yes, ma'am." And with that Catherine runs away.

Gil chuckles. Then he sees Catherine's teacher's death glare he immediately stops. "Catherine!"

"So, a picnic?" Catherine smiles at Gil, popping the last of her sandwich into her mouth. He's blushing!

"Yeah, well…I thought I…"

Catherine puts a finger on his mouth to silence him. "Shhh, I think it's a great idea, okay?"

Gil smiles at her, "Okay." He pulls her forward and places a kiss to her lips.

When the kiss breaks Catherine smiles and him, "Let's go shopping!" She gets up and starts throwing away their trash.

Gil is still sitting on the grass of the park.

"Oh, come on Gil! It'll be fun!" she pulls him to his feet and they walk away, Gil groaning the whole way.

"Tell…me…why…I…let…you…talk…me…into…this…" Gil says in between pants.

"Oh, stop whining Gil. It's good for your heinie."

Gil and Catherine are jogging on the beach—Catherine obliviously doing a much better job.

"You know you are the only girlfriend that I've had that made me do such unpleasant things?"

"I'm very proud."

"Ha-ha. Catherine can we PLEASE stop?"

All of a sudden Catherine stops causing Gil to crash into her. They end up falling onto the sand like the previous night, but this time Catherine is on top of Gil. "Are you trying to break my nose," asks Gil when they stop panting.

"Umm…" she grins at him, "Yeah!" she starts laughing, causing Gil to look at her and then laugh.

Catherine rolls off of him and they turn to face each other in the sand. "Do you know how to surf?"

"Oh God, you're not gonna make me do that too?!"

"No…" He breaths a sigh of relief. "We're gonna go jet skiing!" she grins at him.

Gil's eyes widen in shock.


	4. Water Queen

"Come on Gil." Catherine made her jet ski go even faster and she circled Gil.

"Why be so mean?! I've never jet skied in my life!!"

Catherine stopped circling and stared at him, "Then what the hell do you do in California!?"

Gil chuckled and shrugged, "Work, study…basically."

"That sounds wicked boring."

"Thank you dear."

"Anytime honey. Anytime." She started moving further away from him and grinned.

"Catherine…don't leave me." She chuckled. "Now…" Gil looked down at the manual that he was holding and read, "according to this here manual, you're not doing it right."

"Gil, I don't care what that there manual says, I've been jet skiing before that thing was even a glimmer in a tree's eye. Come on, I'm gonna show you." She aligned her jet ski with Gil's and gripped the handles. "Just do what I do."

And after Gil falling off and nearly killing himself a couple of times he finely got the hand of it.

"Well…that was fun." Catherine says as she walks over to Gil in her board shorts and bikini top. Gil couldn't help but look.

"Yeah…it was."

Catherine looked at him disbelievingly, "Really? I didn't really thing you were having fun in the beginning."

"Well, to be honest…I wasn't—in the beginning…but in these few days I've done stuff that I've only imagined doing. So thanks…for that."

Catherine let out a quick laugh and brought her knees up to her chest, "That's nothing! Just wait were gonna go snow boarding next!"

"Oh yeah…I were would you like to do that, genius?" Gil challenged.

"Right up there…" she pointed to a mountain just above them…with snow, "genius." She shoved him lightly and he smiled and buried his face in his hands.

"Oh my God. I'm never gonna challenge you again!"

Catherine smiled at him and took hold of his hands and squeezed it, "Smart man."

He looked up at her and smiled.


	5. Love Me

"Um…Catherine…?"

Catherine looked over at Gil. He was looking down the mountain. Catherine was strapping in on her snow board, Gil was on the skies. "Yeah?"

"Are you, su-sure this is sa-safe?"

"Safe isn't really the right word…adventurous is probably more fitting." She turned to him and grinned; she stands up and puts her goggles on. "Alright…let's do this."

"I'm not too sure."

"Gil you weren't 'too sure' about water skiing and you ended up having a great time, what's so different about this?"

"Oh, I don't know Cath, maybe…we're on top of a mountain!"

Catherine looks at him, "Fine you stay here…I'll meet you at the bottom." Catherine aligns herself up and slides down, leaving Gil staring at her.

'_I can't believe she just left me here_,' Gil thought to him self, '_I'll show her, I can do this_.' Gil leans forward to the edge and looks down, he lets himself slid down, watching other people go down about 25 times faster than him. '_Okay…just…nice and easy…I can do this as long as I go slowly…_' all of a sudden he went over a rock and started sliding down faster and faster with each second. Gil starts screaming.

Catherine turns around to see who sound like a constipated goose and sees Gil skiing down straight past her. Catherine smiles and goes faster down the mountain. She sees the finish point, with Gil skiing straight past it. "Crap!" Catherine goes faster and soon she is right next to a screaming Gil. "Gil!"

Gil turns and looks at her, trying to keep his eyes in front of him, all he can do is scream.

"Shut up!" He immediately stops screaming and looks at her. They both see the tree coming directly for them, they both start screaming. Catherine grabs Gil's arm and swerves just next to the tree, they were so close that Gil could swear that he felt the bark brash against his jacket. She stops them and they fall on the snow with Gil on top of Catherine.

"How come we always end up on top of each other?"

"I'm not sure…thanks." Catherine says as she pulls her goggles off.

Gil does the same, "Thanks? Thanks for what? I almost go you killed."

Catherine smiles at him, pulled off her glove and touches his cheek, "You've given skiing a try and I…admire that."

Gil grins at her, "For you my darling…anything."

"I love you Gil."

"I love you too Cath…but we should really get out of the snow, we don't want to get…"

He was cut off by Catherine pulling him to her for a kiss.

Catherine's eyes slowly closed as she parted her lips and deepened the kiss. '_Oh. My. God._' That was all that Catherine was thinking.

Catherine looked up from her menu and caught Gil staring at her. He blinked and focused on his menu. Catherine giggled and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

"So…what are you gonna order?"

Catherine looked at Gil and their eyes met. Catherine looked at his shinning eyes, '_He looks a lot more relaxed then when I first met him_,' she thinks, '_I wonder if that has anything to do with me?_' she mentally shook herself, "Sorry…what?"

Gil chuckles at her, "What are you gonna order, Cath?"

"Oh…I guess a burger and fries, I haven't had one in…" Catherine stops and does a quick mental calculation, "17 hours…it's unnatural."

Gil laughs and shakes his head.

"Hey Cath, guess what?" Gil says as him and Catherine horse back ride along the shore of the beach.

"I give up."

"I've horse back ridded before."

"OH MY GOD!! IT'S A MIRICAL!!!" Catherine screams.

Gil laughs and then suddenly realizes what she means, "Hey!"

Catherine laughs as she jumps on Gil's bed in his room in shorter-than-short-shorts and one of Gil's T-shirts and super long striped socks, Gil moves his head and tries to see the TV. Catherine jumps high into the air, roles herself into a ball and bounces onto the bed. She sits cross-legged looking at Gil innocently. Gil moved forward cupping her face with both hands and brushing his lips across hers before she pushed her lips forward and pulled him into a full kiss. She sighed and her hands wound around his neck and his around her waist. They kissed longer until they both need air.

"So you're sure your parents are cool with you staying here."

"Yep." Gil looks at her unbelievably. "Okay, okay…they think I'm staying at Natalie's… she gonna cover for me if they do phone. They're in Australia anyway."

"What they doing there anyways?"

"They're on holiday and they didn't take me." Catherine pouted and gave Gil her best puppy eyes.

"Shame…but think of it this way…if you went with them, you wouldn't have met me." He grins at her.

"Okay, honey…stop grinning…if your grin gets any wider your head is gonna explode."

"And we wouldn't want that do we?"

"No." Catherine rolls off him but rolls the wrong way and lands on the floor, her head jerks up, her hair bouncing up with her.

"Oh my God, honey are you okay?" Gil looks over the bed. He pulls her up to sit on his lap.

"Yeah…ow."

Gil brushes some hair away from her face and kisses the top of her head. He wraps his arms around her waist and they silently watch the TV.


	6. Bruises

Catherine laughed and hit the ball to Gil. They were playing tennis at the local country club. Gil hit the ball back to her.

"Wow, you're pretty good at this," says Catherine as she hits the ball back to him.

"I'm not crap at all sports y'know?"

"I never said that, I just said that you're good."

"Well…in that case…" Gil hit the ball harder to Catherine. It hit her on the side of her thigh.

"Ow! You asshole!" she dropped her racket and walked over to the side of the court, folding her arms as she rested against the wire netting.

"Honey, I'm so sorry," he said running over to her.

Catherine looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He looked really worried. "It's okay." Her face softened and he smiled. He pulled her for a hug and kissed the top of her head. She pulled away from his chest and looked at him, "Is that all I get. You could have given me internal bleeding." She looked at him sideways and smiled. Gil pulls her for a kiss.

"Catherine", he says, pulling away from her.

"Shh," she replies, placing a finger on his lips. "Forget it."

He smiles and presses warm kisses against her collar bone.

"Excuse me!"

They pull away from each other and look at the owner of the country club; a skinny guy with his nose, golf gear and bad old-fashioned hair—basically, total snobby gayness.

"This is not a place for teenagers in love; it is a place for sophisticated gentlemen playing a round of golf in the afternoon. So I suggest you two take your business somewhere else, but not at this establishment." And with that he turns around, smacks the sleeping security guard and walks away.

The second he's out of they're sight Gil looks at Catherine and they both start laughing. "This is not a place for teenagers in love; it is a place for sophisticated gentlemen playing a round of golf in the afternoon. So I suggest you two take your business somewhere else." Catherine says in her best mimicking voice of the gayness.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know, all I know is that guy looks like he has a carrot up his ass."

---

Gil grabs onto Catherine's hand as they rollerblade around the neighborhood. Catherine pulls him in front of her and he gives her a quick kiss. Gil plays with one of Catherine's braids and she smiles.

"You see that building over there?" Catherine points to the shopping complex two blocks away.

"Yeah."

"Lets go." And with that Catherine and Gil speed up to the building.

They are almost there when Gil almost crashes into a little old lady when they go around the corner.

---

Catherine and Gil are lying on his bed at the B&B—Catherine with her bruised leg where the tennis ball hit her and Gil with a bruised arm where the old lady hit him with her walking stick.

"I wanna watch cartoons." Gil looks at her smiles and changes it to the news. "Hey! God, we've just started watching and already you're playing couch commando!"

"Hey! In some parts of the universe, maybe not in the world of the beach bums, but in some parts, it's considered cool to know what's going on in the world.

There's a knock at the door and Catherine looks at Gil and smiles. He gets up to answer and Catherine changes it back to her cartoon.

"Hey Cath?"

"Yeah?"

"Look who's here."

Catherine pries her head away from the TV and sees Jim standing there. "Hey Jim."

"Hey Cath." He takes a set on the chair opposite side of Catherine.

"So how has your holiday been?"

Jim looks at her and smirks. "It's been fun." He rests his head back and smiles.

"I'm not gonna even ask," says Gil as he takes his seat next to Catherine.


	7. Record

"Catherine…how much further is it?" asks Gil as he and Catherine carry on hiking up the mountain.

"You think I know…I've never climbed this far before."

"Great, just great. First you say we don't need a guide and that you know what you're doing and now you say you have no idea where we are."

"I never said that. I said I've never been this far before. And you wanna know why I didn't want a guide?"

"Please."

"So we can do this…" Catherine turns around, stops Gil and she presses her body against his, removing all space between them, and they're kissing. Her arms wind around his neck and her mouth opens as he deepens the kiss. A few moments later, they pull apart. Gil raises an eyebrow at her. "…that." Catherine grins at him, grabs hold of his hand and they carry on walking up the mountain.

"Well…that's worth getting lost."

"We're not lost!"

Gil chuckles and under his breath he says, "Whatever you say."

"I heard that."

-----

"My feet hurt," Catherine moans as she rubs her foot on Gil's bed. "You wanna rub them for me," she offers a foot right in front of Gil's face.

Gil pushes it away from him and he carries on eating his ice cream. "Not really, no."

Catherine shrugs picks up her ice cream, "Fair enough," she says through a mouthful of ice cream. They silently watch the movie on TV when all of a sudden Catherine turns to Gil and grins and says, "We're going to a concert tonight by the way."

Gil drops his spoon and looks at her. "We are?"

"Yep, there's gonna be a ton of different bands there and know a lot of them so I have to go," she smiles at him and kisses him gently on the lips. "I love you."

"I love you," he replies. He glances at the movie on the TV. "Do you know what's going on in the movie?"

"Nope."

"Well…I declare this movie crap," he says as he turns off the TV and throwing the remote at the foot of the bed.

Catherine grins at him and she moves closer towards him and they're kissing. His arms wrap around her waist and hug her closer to him. Catherine's arms travel up and down his back, finally finding a resting place around his neck. Catherine playfully toys with the curls on his head and smiles as his lips move insistently against hers. Catherine opens her mouth. After a few moments, they pull apart; breathing heavily and they look at each other.

"I love you," says Catherine.

A smile breaks out on his face and he kisses her gently on the forehead. "I love you too."

----

Catherine screams and jumps around. The lights shine everywhere and people all around are screaming and throwing water balloons. Then one all of a sudden lands straight on Catherine's head, soaking her hair. Catherine shrugs and Gil laughs. "What I'm cooled down now."

Gil carries on laughing and pulls a piece of the balloon off of Catherine's head. Gil leans in and tries to talk to Catherine. "Catherine…who is this band, I've never heard of them."

Catherine screams again and the lead signer winks at her and she smiles, and Gil slaps her on the butt. "Hey! …What did you say?!"

"I said who are they?"

"Who?!"

"The band!"

"Oh, they're…I don't know," she shrugs and carries on jumping around.

----

"Oh my God! That was so much fun!" says Catherine as she and a very tired Gil walk into the room. Catherine turns around and looks at him. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah…it's not really my thing but it was cool."

"Okay," she watches as Gil takes his shirt off and she moves backwards until she's on the bed.

Gil looks over at her and she smiles cheekily. He comes over to her and hovers above her, kissing her and she pulls him closer as his chest brushes against her tank top. Gil starts trailing kisses along her neck and collarbone. He finally pulls away and smiles at her.

"You wanna shower first," asks Gil.

Catherine looks at him, "You saying I smell?" she asks playfully.

"Well…you have been jumping around like a little flea at the concert, it can make anyone sweaty. I stink too."

"Oh, I'm sure of that," she grins at him and with that she gets up and walks to the bathroom.

"I love you."

Catherine wiggles her butt and closes the door.

----

"Gil, we've just eaten…I'm not going on that thing," they look up at the ride called The Tornado.

They played a couple of the games at the amusement park and Gil had won a big stuffed teddy bear for Catherine, they had just shared a hamburger, hotdog, popcorn, 3 sodas, a plate of French fries, and a milkshake and now they were standing hand-in-hand looking up at the biggest ride there.

"Come on Cath, you always tell me I should try stuff out before I say I can't do it… what's so different about this?"

"Gil…do you honestly want half a hamburger, half a hotdog, half a plate of French fries half a bag of popcorn, like 2 sodas, and a milkshake on your head? Can we just wait like 10 minutes and then we'll go on it, kay?"

"Alright," they start walking away.

"I wanna show you something." They walk to a little candy shop across the road. They enter the shop.

"Why are we here?"

"Look," she points at a framed picture of herself on the wall.

"What the hell?" Gil walks towards it and reads the plague at the bottom. "Catherine Flynn, age 12; holds the record for eating 24 pieces of our famous fudge, going on all the rides at the amusement park five times over and not getting sick." Gil chuckles and turns around and looks at Catherine. "And no one's broken your record in four years."

"Yeah…cool huh?" she grins.


	8. Sharing Feelings

"You're pretty good at this."

Catherine shots another ball in a looks at Gil, "Not all girls are crap at pool." She smiles and hits another ball in.

Gil leans against the wall and looks at Catherine getting ball after ball in. he takes a swig of beer and walks over to her, wraps his arms around her waist and kisses her neck.

Catherine shots and the ball goes flying outside. She turns around and looks at Gil. "You asshole!" she sees the barman's glare, "I gonna go get it." She grabs Gil's arm and they walk out of the bar to look for the ball.

----

"I'm tired." Gil yawns and sits down on the bed.

"Well, if you didn't make me shoot the ball all the way down to the beach then we wouldn't be so tired!" she flops down on the bed face first. Catherine notices a balled up piece of paper on the bed, "This yours?" she picks it up and opens it and starts reading out loud.

"Cath, don't—"

"Words twist and tumble through my mind. But I can't grab the right word or the right line. So we sit in silence. But it's not uncomfortable. In fact I love it. You rest your head on my chest as we lay here. Hearts tangled. You raise your head and look into my eyes and I see our love almost as if it's a real force. I don't ever want to lose this moment. You lay your head on my chest once again. And now I can feel your heartbeat. And my hearts skips. And I finally find the words I'm looking for. I love you." Catherine looks up at him with tears in her eyes. "That's beautiful."

Gil shifts uncomfortably, "Thanks."

"Why didn't you show it to me?"

Gil looks at her with a real 'do I really have to tell you' look.

"Gil, we shouldn't hide things from each other. I know we've only known each other for like a week…but still."

"It's been the best week of my life Cath."

Catherine finger trails down his chest. "Absolutely," I murmur. "So…Mr. Grissom…how do we go about not keeping anything from each other?"

He bends down, so his mouth is just beside her ear. "We can get to know each other a little better," he whispers.

----

Catherine is standing on the little balcony of Gil's room. She turns around and sees Gil still sleeping and she smiles. She turns back and sees her teacher standing on her balcony. She turns and looks at Catherine and smiles. Catherine smiles back and looks out at the ocean. All of a sudden she feels warm arms wrapped around her and she turns slightly looking at Gil.

"Morning, Catherine," he whispers.

She turns around completely and smiles at him. "Hi." Catherine lets her fingers trail down his chest. "I love you."

He kisses her gently. "You like saying that, don't you?"

Catherine looks up with a confused look. "You don't like me saying it?"

"I love you saying it." He takes one of her hands in his and kisses it. He smiles.

"Do you think we should really be doing this when my teacher is right over there?"

Gil looks over Catherine and smiles. "I think we'll be okay."

Catherine turns around to see Mrs. Smith and her husband in each others arms in their own little world. She smiles and turns back to Gil. "I think that's so sweet…they've been together since they were out age and they're still so in love."

"Catherine, I want to talk to you about something."

Catherine looks up a little. "This sounds serious."

He nods at her. "It is. You know I can't stay here forever, right?"

Catherine nods, "Yeah."

"I was thinking about what were gonna do when I leave…I mean I have to start work in three weeks and I'm leaving in two."

"Haven't you ever heard of long-distance relationships working?"

"Of course I have but…you're sixteen, you're gonna want to experience other relationships."

"I already have, and…none of them up together times nine hundred million, trillion billion can compare to this one. So I would never do anything to ruin this, what we've got. Gil…I've told you things that I haven't even told my best friend. So…don't worry, I'm not going anywhere…"

----

Catherine walks up to Gil's table, "Hey."

Gil smiles at her, "Having fun?"

Catherine looks at the guys who has fourteen different plates in front of him, "Well…that guy's been here for like two hours and just keeps on ordering stuff and that guy over there just called me Sweet Thang… so no, I'm not having fun."

Gil laughs and she steals a piece of toast off his plate and walks away.

---- 

Catherine throws a little balled up piece of paper at Gil's head for the fifth time. "Gil."

"Yeah?"

"Talk to me!"

"Okay…" Gil turns and looks at Catherine sitting on the chair in the opposite side of the room, he walks over to her and picks her up. "Hello."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm using the fact that I've got a small girlfriend to my adventage."

Catherine sticks her tongue out at him.

Gil puts her on the bed, "I'm tired."

----

Catherine rolls over in the bed and watches Gil sleep. 

"You're watching me again, aren't you?" he murmurs, his eyes still closed.

"You're not bad on the eyes," Catherine replies.

"Thank you," he smiles, pulling Catherine towards him.


	9. Pizza and a Banana Split

Catherine and Gil are sitting on the bed, Gil reading a book and Catherine painting her toenails purple. Catherine sticks her foot in Gil's face, "Blow." Gil blows on her toenails to dry them without even looking up from his book. "Thank you."

"Hmm."

"You hungry?"

"Hmm."

"GIL!"

"Hmm?"

"I'm gonna make a pizza."

"Where?"

"In the kitchen, DUH!"

"Okay, I don't want pineapple on mine."

Catherine looks at Gil still reading his book and smirks. "You're coming with me."

Gil rolls his eyes. "Am I now?"

"Yep." And with that Catherine pulls Gil up and they walk out, Gil's eyes still fixed on the book.

They shut the door behind them and then Catherine opens it again—still dragging a reading Gil by the arm—grabs his book and throws it in the room and shuts the door behind them again.

----

Catherine is lying on the bed in a vest and underwear with her super long socks with a box of chocolates on her lap. Gil comes out of the bathroom in nothing but his boxers.

"Mmm…" mummers Catherine.

"Gee, I never thought I'd have this kind of affect on you."

"Mmm…no, not you MAN, the chocolates."

Gil looks at her. "Chocolates have a bigger affect on you than me."

Catherine grins, "I'd say you're on about the same level."

Gil lies down next to her and wraps his arms around her and kisses her on the cheek, "Well…it depends on how good the chocolates are. If they're not good I'm gonna be offended."

"Okay." She gives one to him and Gil looks at her.

"I'm in pretty good company."

"Of course you are…you're with me," she grins and goes back to her chocolates.

----

Catherine is kneeling on a huge piece of paper that she laid down on the floor. All around her are pens, charcoal, crayons and watercolors.

Gil looks at her from where he is lying on the bed and smiles, "Having fun honey."

Catherine looks up at him and grins, "Yeah." Gil notices a smudge of red paint on her cheek and walks over to her. On the paper Catherine has drawn, her name a few times, Gil's name, and a couple of cartoons.

Gil kneels down and looks at it, "Cute."

Catherine smiles, "Thanks…" They share a look for a moment, "Your turn." Catherine gets up and Gil stares at her.

"What?"

"Yeah…draw something. Use your imagination…I'm gonna go get ready for work." She bends down and gives him a quick kiss and walks into the bathroom.

Gil sighs and looks at the page.

----

Catherine walks out of the bathroom drying her hair with a towel. "Hey, baby." She looks at Gil reading on the bed. "Please tell me you did SOMETHING." She walks over to it, Gil has added a few cute pictures and right in the middle he wrote "Gil and Cath 4 eva."

She looks at him and smiles. "It's so cute." She climbs onto the bed.

Gil looks at her and smiles, "It's true. You and me…forever." Her hand flattened on his chest, then explored it gently. His chest rose and fell under her hand. And then, she lifted her eyes, and he caught his breath. "Do you know how incredibly beautiful you are?"

She blinked slowly and when she looked at him again. She settled on her back and stared at the ceiling. After a long moment, she turned her head and looked at him. Her smile was so sweet. "When you decide to speak, you can be…very charming."

He propped his head up in his hand and shrugged. "It's the truth. Men have tried, Catherine, whether in song or sonnet, to describe the beauty of a woman and how it affects them. I have yet to come across any words that do you justice."

His words stunned her into silence. Catherine watched as he moved his hand under her hair the back of her neck, and slowly drew her to him. His slowly closed the short distance between their mouths.

"Gil." His hand fisted into her hair and his mouth found hers again. She moaned when his tongue pushed past them and touched hers. His hand slipped under her sweater, smoothed the skin of her back. He grasped her hip and pulled her tighter. She moaned and moved against him. Gil broke the kiss. Her body sagged against his and she buried her face in his neck. He closed his eyes tightly. Catherine starts nipping at the sensitive skin of his neck, he nudged her gently.

"Cath, don't. If we don't stop now…" He rolled onto his back, and Catherine laid her head on his shoulder.

----

Gil was waiting outside of the kitchen when Catherine's teacher walks up to him. "Hello Gil."

Gil's head snaps up and he smiles shyly at her. "Hello, ma'am. I was just waiting for Cath to come out. I hope you don't mind, I mean if you do I'll-"

Mrs. Smith lifted up a hand for Gil to stop, "Gil, its fine. You're a nice guy so don't worry. Catherine's mom asked me to keep an eye on her while they were in Australia and I've got to admit…I was worried in the beginning. I mean you're what? Seven years older than her?" Gil nodded his head. "But you are the only guy Catherine has dated that I can truthfully say I like."

Gil smiles, "Thank you."

"You really love her, don't you?"

"Gil looks at her, "Yeah, I…really love her."

"What you gonna do when you leave?"

Gil shakes his head sadly, "I don't know."

"Yeah, well…get in there. Cath said something bout making dinner for herself."

"Yeah, thanks." And with that Gil pushes the door open and walks into the kitchen. He finds Catherine standing at one of the counters making a banana split. "Hello."

Catherine looks up from her ice cream and smiles at him, "Hey." She walks over to him and wraps her arms around his neck. They kiss for a few moments. "Does Mrs. Smith know you're in here?"

"Um…yeah. She saw me waiting outside for you and let me come in. She said you were making yourself dinner…"

"Yeah…I am." Catherine walks over to the counter again and starts adding the chocolate syrup and bananas.

Gil laughs, "A banana split?"

Catherine looks at him and grins as she starts adding the strawberry syrup, "Yep."

"Strawberry and chocolate syrup?"

"Yeah…it's really good," she starts applying the whipped cream.

"That's disgusting."

"Yeah…I know."

"You eat like a truck driver but you're like a quarter of the size of one."

Catherine squirts the whipped cream at him and smiles.


	10. Cath Gets a Promotion

Catherine and Gil are standing at the wheel of a boat. Gil's arms are wrapped around Catherine's waist as they steer the boat together.

About two hours later they are sitting in the boat, looking out at the ocean in front of them. "This is amazing." Gil looks at Catherine, "You'd never see something like this in California."

"I'm hungry."

Gil looks at her and smiles, "You're always hungry."

Catherine gets up and walks to the picnic basket and gets a soda and a sandwich out of it. She turns to look at Gil, "You want one?"

"Thanks."

"Catch." She throws it to him, grabs for herself and sits down again.

----

Catherine is sitting on the check-in counter at the B&B in her own world.

Catherine's teacher walks up to her, "Catherine." Nothing. "Catherine!"

Catherine slowly turns to look at her, "Hello?"

"What are you thinking about?"

Catherine sighs, "Can I ask you something?" she nods, "I want to go with Gil to California…but, I don't know what my mom will say…I'm scared to even ask her cause I know she'll say no."

"You don't know that." Catherine gives her the 'what do you think' look, "Right. I don't know Cath." She looks around, "Where is Gil anyways?"

"He's in his room. I just need some time to…think."

"Your mom called me last night."

Catherine's head snaps up. "What did she want? What did you say?"

"She wanted to know if you were coming to work and stuff like that."

"Did you tell her about…?"

"…about Gil? Yes."

"Thanks a lot."

"Has anyone checked in?"

"If that came here I probably wouldn't have even seen them."

"You're helpful. I'm gonna give you a sorta promotion…you are now the check-in girl."

"Really?! Cool! Thank you! Do I get more money?"

Mrs. Smith sniggers, "No." and with that she walks away.

----

Catherine is sitting at the check-in counter reading a magazine when a couple comes up to her wanting to check in. "Excuse me?"

Catherine looks up to see a young couple, "Hello. Can I help you?

"Yes. We'd like to check in."

Catherine jumps off the counter, "Do you have a name?"

"Yes, it's Robert."

"Mr. and Mrs. Robert."

"No," quickly replies the woman, "It's not Mr. and Mrs."

"Excuse me?"

"We're not married."

"Oh…sorry." Catherine looks at the book and then back at the couple, "Who's gonna ask anyways?" she turns around to get their room key, "You're in number 7." She gives the guy the key. "Enjoy your stay guys." And with that she goes back to her magazine.

The guy turns around to go to their room but the woman stays there, "Excuse me."

Catherine looks up once again from her magazine, "Yes?"

"Has our room got a breeze?"

Catherine looks at her like she's got two heads, "Excuse me?"

"Well our room, has it got a breeze?" Catherine continues to look at her. "Well, is it airy?"

"Well, there's air in it."

The woman turns around and together the couple walks up the stairs.

----

Catherine is lying on the bed; she turns around and looks at Gil. She props herself up on an elbow and stares at him. "My mom's arriving tomorrow."

He opens his eyes and smiles at her. "Yeah." He leans up and kisses her. "I love you, Catherine. I love you very, very much."

"Good," She nods, bending down and kissing him deeply. 

Gil starts running his hands up her arms. "I love you," He tells her between kisses.

Her eyes light up and she kisses him gently. "I love you too." Her hands travel down his chest. "Like that, huh?" she asks, a teasing glint in her eye as she does it again.

"You have beautiful hands," He tells her, taking one and kissing the palm. His hands start skimming across her body

Catherine looks down at him with a raised eyebrow. "Enjoying yourself?"

He smirks at her. "Immensely."

She grins and crooks a finger at him. "Come back up here."

"But Cath, I want to play."

She smiles broadly at him, reaching down and running her fingers across the top of his head. "But I want to play together." She folds her arms and pouts at him. "Don't you want to play with me?"

He hovers above her and smiles. "I guess it'll be fun."

"No arguments here," She replies, tugging him down for another kiss.

Gil kisses to her neck, his hands stroking her body. Her hands tangle in his hair and keeps moving, stroking anywhere she can reach. "You feel so good."

Catherine looks up at him and smiles, leaning up to kiss him again. Gil breaks away, shuffling down the bed a little, but still keeping his eye on her. He grins.


	11. Another Side of Catherine

Catherine wakes up; she looks at Gil who is still sleeping. She smiles sadly, '_It's all gonna change now_,' she thinks to herself. She pushes Gil's arm off her and gets out of bed.

----

Catherine is standing at reception reading another one of her magazines, listening to her iPod, in her own world. An old lady walks up to her, "Now girl." Catherine doesn't respond. "I need change for this." She slams a bill onto the counter.

Catherine looks up. "Can I help you?"

"Will you take those daft things out of your ears and give me change for this."

"Certainly." She gives her the change. "Are you checking in?"

The lady looks at her, "What do you think?"

"Your name please?"

"Mrs. Richards. Mrs. Alice Richards."

"Oh yes, you're in number 2.

"Now listen to me. I've booked a room with a bath and a sea view for three nights. I specifically asked for a sea view in my confirmation, so please make sure I have it." 

Catherine turns around to get the key and under her breath she says, "We're a B&B right on the beach…you're gonna see the sea."

"What?"

"Shaun will see you to your room, ma'am. SHAUN!" And under her breath, "If you're lucky." 

And a guy the same age as Catherine walks into the room. They share a glance and he walks off with her bags—Mrs. Richards following behind.

----

Gil walks down the stairs over to Catherine, "Hey."

Catherine looks up and smiles, "Hi." They lean over the counter and kiss. "You have a good sleep?"

"Yeah."

"Mrs. Smith's gone to fetch my mom and Nancy so I'm in charge." She grins.

They share a kiss again but are interrupted by…

"Are you the manager girl?"

Catherine and Gil break away and Catherine looks at Mrs. Richards, "No ma'am the owners have gone out for a few hours."

"What?"

"The owners have..."

She cut off by, "I want to speak to the manager." 

"They are the managers, too." She says impatiently. 

"What?" 

"They are the managers _as well_." 

"Now listen to me. I specifically requested a bath for my room. When I pay for a bath, I expect to get a bath." 

"You've _got_ a bath. 

"I'm not paying nineteen-dollars-fifty per night plus VAT for a room without a bath."

Catherine gives Gil a sorry look and walks up with Mrs. Richard to her room and indicates her bath. "There is your bath." 

"You call that a bath? It's not big enough to drown a mouse. It's disgraceful." And with that she walks out. 

Under her breath Catherine says, "I wish you were a mouse; I'd show you." 

----

Catherine and Gil are leaning against the front of the check-in counter waiting for Catherine's mom to arrive. Mrs. Smith had phoned a few minutes before telling them that were about five minutes away.

"I nervous." Gil looks over at her and squeezes her hand, smiling. "I don't know why I'm nervous I guess…aren't you nervous?"

"Yeah." Gil's voice sounds slightly shaky and that makes Catherine even more nervous. All of a sudden they see car lights approaching. Within a minute they see Catherine's mom, Lily.

"Catherine!" she comes over and hugs Catherine.

"Hey mom." She looks at her younger sister, "Hey Nans."

"Hey." They share a quick hug and Catherine looks at her mom.

"Mom…this is Gil, my…boyfriend."

"Hello ma'am, I'm Gil Grissom. It's so nice to finely meet you, Catherine has told me so much about you." He looks at Nancy, "About both of you."

"So…Gil Grissom…how old are you?"

That was the question Catherine was dreading, "I'm twenty-three, ma'am."

"And do you think it's nice to go around from town to town courting sixteen-year-olds?"

And for the remainder of the night it was extremely awkward for Gil and Catherine. They were all having dinner when Lily started digging deeper, pissing Catherine off with each word; the night went something like this:

"So Gil, did you know how old Catherine was when you had sex with her." That caused Catherine, Gil, Nancy, Mr. and Mrs. Smith to drop their forks.

"Mom, we haven't had sex."

"You know I said the exact same thing to my mom."

"Do you drink, Gil?"

"Well…I'm twenty-three so yes; I have a beer now and then."

"Did you let Catherine drink?"

"Of course not."

And after about forty-five minutes Catherine finally had enough, "MOM! STOP IT! JUST STOP IT! For the first time in my life I've got a boyfriend who hasn't pressured me into anything! Why can't you just be happy for me and stop treating Gil like shit!?"

"I just don't want you to be hurt like I was."

"You were hurt cause all the guys wanted from you was sex! And you let them!"

"Catherine, Nancy…in the car. We're going home." And with that Lily gets up, "Thanks for dinner guys, sorry we can't stay longer…I have to sort some things with Catherine." Lily and Nancy start walking towards the car but Catherine just stands there, standing up with her arms folded staring at Lily.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Her voice was like ice. She didn't even blink she was stood there.

"Oh…I think you are."


	12. Say Goodbye

Catherine was sitting on the edge of her bed thinking about what had happened in the last three hours. Catherine and her mom had argued the whole way home, and when they got home for another two hours. Nancy had gone to bed, giving up on both of them. She just wanted to jump out of her window, run to Gil and go with him back to California and never speak to her mom again. But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do it. No matter how much she hates her mom she is still her mom.

-----

It had been five days since Lily and Nancy had arrived back and in those days Catherine had not spoken to her mom once. She had tried to see Gil whenever she could but it had seemed to be that her mom's favorite new hobby was to make sure that Catherine's life was miserable—and Gil-less.

Now Catherine was clearing away the plates, her mom nowhere in sight. Gil walked towards her. "Hey."

Catherine flinched and looked at Gil, "Hi." She looked around for her mom, "My mom's probably…" she was cut off by Gil pressing his finger to her mouth.

"She left. I saw her leave." He smiles and pulls her for a hug.

Catherine starts sobbing softly and looked up at Gil, "Gil…I am so, so sorry."

"Listen to me Cath, this is not your fault…okay." Catherine nods.

----

Catherine is standing behind the check-in counter. Her mom had gone to the hairdresser. Today was the day Catherine had been dreading since she had met Gil; it was the day Gil and Jim are going back to California.

"Hey Cath?"

Catherine looked up at Mrs. Smith, "Yeah?"

"Your mom's not here…go and see him."

"Oh, no um…it's okay thanks." She smiles at her and goes back to her work.

"Go." She takes the papers Catherine is filling in, "Go!"

Catherine smiles at her, "Thanks." She walks up the stairs to Gil's room and knocks lightly.

"Cath!"

"Hi," she said. Shifting on her feet, she smiled at him. "Can I come in?"

"Of course you can," Gil replied, opening the door for her. "I thought we wouldn't get a chance to say goodbye."

"We probably wouldn't have. But, Mrs. Smith said I could come up. My mom's gone to the hairdresser."

"I'm very glad to see you," he told her. Leaning down, Gil pressed a deep kiss to her lips. "Very glad."

Catherine shifted on her feet again. "I was thinking, last night, about us. About how you have to go."

"And?"

"And I want to tell you something before you go."

"Okay." The two of them make their way to the arm chair, Gil sits down first and pulls Catherine down to sit on his lap.

"I still want to be your girlfriend."

"Great."

"Let me finish. I want you to know that I'm not gonna date another guy while you're gone."

"Cath…you don't have to…"

"I know but…" she smiles, "I want to."

Gil leant down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "I love you."

"Love you too."

----

Catherine comes down the stairs, "Hey Cath." Says mrs. Smith the second she sees her.

"Hey."

"Can you take over for a few minutes?"

"Hey. Sure."

"Thanks." She walks away and Catherine stands behind the desk and a man walks up to her. "Hello."

"Hello. I'd like to book a room for a few nights."

"Have you booked?"

"Um, no."

"Your _name_, please, could I have your name?"

"Melbury." 

The phone rings and Catherine picks it up. "One second please," she says to Melbury.

"Hello? One second"...she says into the phone. "MRS. SMITH! IT'S O'REILLY."

Mrs. Smith comes rushing out of the kitchen, "Thank god!! That sorry bastard took his sweet time to get back to me!" she takes the phone from Catherine, "Ah, yes Mr. O'Reilly, well it's perfectly simple. When I asked you to build me a wall I was rather hoping that instead of just dumping the bricks in a pile you might have found time to cement them together...you know, one on top of another, in the traditional fashion." 

Catherine looks at her teacher and then back at Melbury, "Could you fill this in, please?" 

"Oh, splendid! Ah, yes, but _when_, Mr. O'Reilly?" she looks at Melbury, he is having trouble filling out the register, she points at it, "There - there!" and the starts talking into the phone again, "Yes, but when? Yes, yes... ah!...the flu!" 

Catherine looks at her and then at Melbury, "_Both_ names, please." 

"Yes, I should have guessed, Mr. O'Reilly that and the potato famine I suppose..." 

"I beg your pardon?" says Melbury to Catherine, trying to ignore mrs. Smith. 

Mrs. Smith buts in and looks at Melbury, "Would you put _both_ your names, please?" she says to Melbury and then starts talking into the phone once again, "Well, will you give me a date?" 

"Er... I only use one."  
mrs. Smith looks at Melbury with a withering look, "You don't have a first name?" 

"No, I am _Lord_ Melbury, so I simply sign 'Melbury'." 

T_here is a long, long pause_ and Catherine's head shoots up and looks at mrs. Smith, mrs. Smith looks straight past Melbury and _Lord_ Melbury looks at Catherine. Mrs. Smith looks at the phone and to it she says, "Go away." And puts it down. "I'm _so_ sorry to have kept you waiting, your lordship... I _do_ apologize, _please_ forgive me. Now, was there something, is there something, anything, I can do for you? Anything at all?"

Catherine looks at her and starts laughing.

Melbury looks at the grinning woman and the laughing teenager, "Well, I have filled this in."

Mrs. Smith takes the register from him and throws it behind him, "Oh, don't worry about that."

----

Gil and Jim come down the stairs with their luggage, they walk over to Catherine to check out, "Hey Cath." Jim says—to break the ice.

"Hey, Jim."

Gil gives her his key, "I guess this is goodbye."

"Yeah."

Jim steps away letting them have their privacy.

Catherine comes out from around the desk and gives him a hug. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you too."

"CATHERINE!!!"

"Shit I, um, forgot about the dragon."

"Cath…she's your mom."

She shrugs, "I guess."

He gives her hand a squeeze and he walks to their car.

Jim gives her his key, "Well, thanks, it was nice meeting you."

Catherine looks up, "You too."

She gives Jim a hug, slipping a letter in his back pocket, "Can you give that to Gil for me?" she whispers into his ear.

"Sure." And with that he follows his friend to the car saying, "You're the only girl that Gil has talked to me about. You're one in a mil, Cath."

Catherine smiles.

They get in their car and before she knows it, they're gone.

Lily walks up to her, "Well, at least the worst is over."

Catherine looks at her mom with tears in her eyes, "How can you say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it hasn't even started." She walks into the bathroom and locks herself in the cubical.

Dear Gil,

You may have thought, in the last few days, that you made my life so much better and that without it I can't function properly.

I just wanted to thank you for listening to me, not judging me and making my summer a lot more special. Remember when I said to you that I've told you things that I haven't told my best friends well, that wasn't a lie. For some reason I felt totally comfortable around you, even though I'd know you for only a few days.

Please give me a call when you arrive in California. I can't wait to see you again. Good luck with school.

I'll see you next time you get a vacation. I look forward to that day...if it ever comes. I love you.

--Catherine--


	13. Falling

Jim and Gil were sitting in the car in silence. "Oh dude," Gil looks at Jim and Jim hands Catherine's letter to him, "Cath wanted me to give this to you."

"Thanks." Gil smiles at him and opens the letter and starts reading."

Dear Gil,

I've realized in the last few days, that you make my life so much better and that without it I can't function properly.

I just wanted to thank you for listening to me, not judging me and making my summer a lot more special. Remember when I said to you that I've told you things that I haven't told my best friends well, that wasn't a lie. For some reason I felt totally comfortable around you, even though I'd know you for only a few days.

Please give me a call when you arrive in California. I can't wait to see you again. Good luck with school.

I'll see you next time you get a vacation. I look forward to that day...if it ever comes. I love you.

--Catherine--

Gil looks up from the letter and sighs, "That bad, huh?"

He turns to look at Jim, "Not really it's just…I didn't realize that now that she's in my life I don't know how to live without her…"

----

It was 10'oclock at night three weeks after Gil and Jim had left and Catherine and Nancy were sitting in the living room watching TV when Lily walks in, "Girls, I'm going out."

Catherine and Nancy turn to look at their mother, "Kay."

"Catherine, make sure Nancy goes to bed before midnight please."

"Okay."

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye, mom," replied Nancy.

She waited there for an answer from Catherine, "Cath?"

Catherine turned to look at Lily, "What?"

"Bye."

Catherine turned her head back to the TV, "Bye love you miss you," she said in one breath.

And with that she walked out of the house.

The second she was gone Catherine flopped her head on the pillow.

"You still upset 'bout Gil leaving?"

Catherine looks up from the pillows and gives her sister a 'what do you think' look, "Ya think!?"

"Well, if you miss him so much why don't you go and see him?"

"Yeah, I should it's just…a bit complicated right now since mom doesn't like him," Catherine flops against the sofa and smirks, "The one guy a like…" she looks at her sister, "…love."

"Well…mom's not here now."

"Your saying go and see him?"

"Um…yeah!" she looks at Catherine who just stares at her with a confused expression on her face."

"Oh, what, now?" Nancy looks at her, "Right!" Catherine jumps on top of the sofa and jumps off it and rushes to her room then comes running back, "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"California's…a long way away. I'm gonna be a while AND how am I gonna get there."

"Oh…"

They both think for a bit and then their faces lighten up, "MRS. SMITH'S TRUCK!"

----

'I can't believe I'm doing this,' Catherine thinks to herself has she walks around the campus of California State University. She walks up to a girl that she guesses is about Gil's age, "Um…excuse me?"

The girl looks up from her notebook, "Yeah?"

"Do you know where I can find Gil Grissom?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who would hang out with that dork?"

Catherine looks at her, a pink shorter than short skirt, heels and a huge bag. In other words a Paris Hilton wannabe and cheerleader. "Um…probably not, no."

"You're not from here are you?"

"How'd you guess?"

"You're too young to be at collage, and plus you're dressed in sweatpants," she smirks, "No one wear sweatpants on campus."

"Oh…"

"He's in the library."

Catherine looks at her, "But I thought you just said you…" she shakes her head, "Never mind. Thank you." She runs to her left and then runs back to her, "Where's the library?"

The girl points to behind Catherine, "Thank you." And she runs towards the library.

-----

Catherine walks in the library looking everywhere for Gil, when an old woman stops her, "Um excuse me young lady, I need you're library pass please."

Catherine looks at the librarian, "Oh, I um, don't come here. I'm looking for my—"

"I don't care if you're looking for your teeth, no pass, and no entry. That's the way it works."

Catherine sees Gil out of the corner of her eye, "Look my boyfriend is right there, if I could—" She sees the woman's glare and walks away, defeated. She walks outside and sits on the wall. She looks around her for another way to get in that library.

Catherine walks around to the side of the building and finds an air vent. She smiles and jumps up but is just too short. She bites her lip and looks around for a step.

----

Not far away from where Catherine is standing Mitch, the janitor is watching her. He walks over to Catherine taps her on the shoulder.

Catherine spins around, "Shit!"

"Sorry."

"Dude, you scared the hell out of me!"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help notice you…you look like you're about to cause trouble."

"No…I'm not trying to cause trouble I'm trying to get into the library."

"Oh, deary…they've made a ground breaking discover in the past few years their called doors, I find them to be very affective."

Catherine looks at him, "That's cute…um?"

"Oh, I'm Mitch."

"Well, Mitch, I'm Catherine."

"Catherine. May I ask why you are trying to get into the library through the air vent?"

"Cause the mean librarian won't let me in cause I don't have a pass cause I don't go to this place."

"So why be here."

"I am trying to get my boyfriend. Can you go in there and get him."

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm not allowed in there either…the librarian is very picky cause um, I wear overalls, so…"

"That is the most ridiculous excuse I have ever heard."

"I know right? We should form some sort of library support group."

"Um…no thank you. I just need to get in there so I can get to my boyfriend."

"Hmm…fair enough."

Catherine and Mitch walk over to the air vent. "You got a screwdriver?"

"Yep." Mitch unscrews the screws on the air vent and it opens up.

"Okay…" Catherine looks up at the tiny hole in the wall, "Give me a boost."

Mitch picks Catherine up and she slides in headfirst, "You know you're lucky…not many people would be able to get though that tiny hole."

"Yeah, well, if you surf for thirteen hours every day, it pays off," she smiles at him, "Thanks for your help, Mitch."

"No problem. I'd love to hang around and help but I have to get back to work." He hands Catherine his screwdriver. "You might need this."

"Thanks," he walks away and Catherine starts crawling deeper and deeper into the building. She crawls towards a vent in the floor and looks down; right beneath her is the mean librarian. She crawls until she finds another vent and she sees Gil. "Goody." She starts unscrewing the screws and opens the vent. She sticks her head down to see what's going on.

----

Gil is sitting at one of the tables finishing off his homework; he looks up and sees his girlfriend sticking out of the ceiling. Gil shakes his head a few times to make sure his wasn't hallucinating. Nope, Catherine was sticking out of the ceiling. He walks over to her. "Hey Cath."

"Gil! Hi!" Catherine turns to look at him but does so too quickly and falls and lands on the floor, knocking over a pile of books as she comes down.

Everyone looks up, including the librarian who comes walking over to them. Gil bends down in front of Catherine, "Baby…what are you doing here?"

"Um…surprise," Catherine smiles and shrugs and Gil kisses her. She looks at him smiling then it quickly fads when she sees the librarian behind Gil. She clears her throat to get his attention. Gil turns around and looks at her.

"What is going on here Mr. Grissom."

"Nothing, ma'am."

"Nothing! A girl just fell out of the ceiling and you tell me it's nothing!" she looks at Catherine, "Wait a minute. You're the girl who wanted to get in here without a pass."

"Hi." Catherine smiles and waves at her.

"That's it…both of you; out."

Gil helps Catherine up and they walk out of the library, avoiding the glares from everyone in it.


	14. The End of Summer

Catherine and Gil walk into his apartment; Gil closes the door and throws the keys on the small table next to it. "You wanna come sit down?"

"Kay."

They both take a seat on the sofa Catherine back in her rightful place—on Gil's lap. "So…" Gil looks up at her and grins, "You stole your teacher's truck?"

Catherine smiles cheekily at him, "Maybe."

Gil laughs, "Well, it's great to have you here…I can't believe your mom let you come. What made her come around?"

"Um…well, she didn't really say it was completely, utterly and totally okay." She smiles at him.

Gil pulls back a little and looks at her, "Oh God. What have you done?"

"Well, I…I just sorta…left."

"You left?"

"Yep!"

"Oh God." Gil picks her up.

"Where are you taking me?! Gil!" Catherine screams.

"I'm taking you home." Gil picks up his keys and walks out of the apartment with Catherine over his shoulder.

"Gil! I don't want to go back! I want to stay here with you!"

Gil puts her down right in front of him, "Yes Catherine I get that, I want you here too, it's just…you're sixteen years old! You need to be home with your mom!"

"Why?! You know when I left she was going out leaving us all by ourselves! Id that ever happen to you!?"

Gil looks at his feet and shakes his head, "No."

"You are the first good thing that has happened to me! I want to move here…you know that! We talked about it!"

"What the hell is going on?" Jim walks out of the apartment and over to them, "Oh, hey! Cath! What's going on?"

"Catherine stole her teacher's truck and drove all the way here…without telling her mom."

"So?"

"So! SO! Jim the girl is sixteen! She shouldn't be running away from home!"

"You knew she was sixteen when you started dating her! I know for a fact that no other girl would drive all the way here just to see their boyfriend."

Gil looks at Catherine and she starts crying. Gil pulls her for a hug, "Baby, I'm so sorry."

"Good. Now I'm going back to bed." He walks away leaving Gil and Catherine standing in the middle of the hall.

----

Catherine's eyes open slowly. She is cocooned in Gil's arms. "Hey."

She looks up at him slowly, "Hi."

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

----

Nancy is sitting on the sofa watching TV when Lily walks in, "Hi mom."

"Hey Nans. Where's Cath?"

"She's in California," replies Nancy not even taking her eyes off the TV.

"WHAT!!!!!?????"

"Yeah, she went to go see Gil."

"And you let her?"

"Yep. She _is_ my older sister."

"I'm calling her." Lily walks over to the phone and starts punching in a number.

"Mom," Nancy gets off the sofa and takes the phone off her mom, "Catherine is sixteen and she has found a boyfriend that loves her and hasn't pressured her into anything. Why aren't you happy? Most mothers would kill for their daughters to have a boyfriend like that. They're gonna be together whether you like it or not, whether you give them permission or not. Why can't you just accept that?"

Lily looks at her younger daughter with tears in her eyes, "I just want her to be happy."

"She is. And if they break up, well whatever. We all have to go through it…that's life."

"You're right…okay" she sighs. "Give me the phone."

Nancy looks at her mom. "Be nice."

"I'm always nice." She waits for Catherine to answer.

----

Catherine gets out of bed and walks over to her bag and looks at her cell phone; Mom. "Shit."

"What's wrong?"

"It's my mom."

"Just answer the phone."

"God I'm gonna kill Nancy." She puts the phone to her ear, "Hello?"

"Catherine…its mom."

"Um…hi."

"Look…I want to talk to you."

"Okay," Catherine backs up and sits on the edge of the bed.

"I just wanted to say that I…accept your relationship with Gil."

"Really!?"

"Yes…he's a really great guy and I should have seen that in the beginning."

"That was really difficult for you to say wasn't it?"

"Yeah," they laugh into the phone. "I want to speak to him."

"Mom…" Catherine hears Nancy's warning tone in the background and she laughs.

"Okay, he's right here." Catherine passes the phone to Gil and he looks at her warily. "It's okay…she's cool."

"Hi Mrs. Flynn." Gil says into the phone.

Catherine sits cross-legged on the bed trying to listen to the conversation but all she could hear was Gil saying: "Okay. Yes. Alright. Thank you. I will. Bye."

Catherine looks at him, "And?"

Gil smiles at her, "And…"

----

Twenty-seven years later a forty-three year old Catherine Grissom walks into her house, normally it's pretty noisy considering they have seven kids: A seventeen year old Christina, a fourteen year old Michael, a thirteen year old Kelly, a seven year old Max, a five year old Miranda, a three year old Andrew and two year old Jennifer.

"Hello? Where is everyone?!"

"Mommy! Mommy!" Jennifer runs out of the kitchen; her face full of chocolate sauce.

"Hey baby! What have you been doing in my kitchen?" she picks her up.

"Making banana splits." Jennifer giggles.

"You're making banana splits for dinner?"

"It was daddy's idea!"

"Well, let's go and see if the rest of them have finished everything because I'm hungry!"

They walk into the kitchen. There is ice-cream, chocolate syrup, bananas, strawberry syrup and whipped cream all over the kitchen, her kids and her husband. "Oh my God," Catherine laughs and puts Jennifer down.

Gil walks over to her, "Hello."

Catherine looks up at him and smiles, "Hello."

"I thought I'd get this lot cleaned up before you'd come home."

"We got the guy. Probably one of the most easiest murders I've ever solved."

"Well it's nice to have you home early…I missed you, life's a lot easier with you home."

"Oh, I know. Hey wait a minute…I thought you hated banana splits."

"Honey, we have seven very demanding kids that always want to share."

Catherine laughs, "That's why you've got two splits on your head."

Grissom laughs, "Yeah. Oh and by the way…you're mom called she's coming to stay."

"Oh GOD! She is SO interfering!"

"You hate her if she hates me, you hate her if she loves me."

"Who couldn't love you?"

All the kids walk out of the kitchen with their banana splits—leaving their parents to clean up.

"KIDS!!!"


End file.
